Heavy smokers can be successful lung donor candidates

YOU might think that heavy smokers make for bad lung donors. But a new a study finds donors who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day for more than 20 years were strong candidates for double lung transplant donors.

It has been found that the patients who received the smokers’ lungs had similar short and medium term survival rates as those who received lungs from people who did not smoke heavily, however, tended to stay in the hospital for a few days longer for recovery. Over a two-year span, scientists found that lung function and death rates in recipients who had received heavy smoking donor lungs was similar to those who received healthier lungs.

As the number of people in need for double lung transplants has grown, doctors have had to expand the donor pool. According to Dr. Sharven Taghavi, lead author of the study and a surgical resident at Temple University, “Historically, these smoking donors were excluded. They were generally considered to be less than ideal.

“But some patients are in a very dire situation. They may not have the time to wait, so they have to use the lungs that are available.”

Smoking can kill you, yet a lot of people can’t stop. What is it about smoking that compels people to indulge, even knowing the increased risk for Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer? Certainly, Nicotine Addiction is part of the answer. Millions of people smoke, and hundreds of thousands die each year as a result. According to the Centers For Disease Control, more people die each year due to tobacco-related medical problems than alcohol use, HIV, illegal drug use, motor vehicle accidents, murders and suicides combined.